Big Fish Games announced to their affiliates that 103 games have been removed from their catalog as of March 29, 2019. This means they are no longer available for sale. Big Fish often removes games due to licensing or other issues, but never before have they removed so many all at once.
Note: when you purchase a game at Big Fish Games, it is yours forever no matter if Big Fish has it for sale in their game catalog or not. To get to removed games that you have purchased, go to your Game Manager and click on the Purchase History link on the left sidebar. There you can see all of the games you own and download any you need.
This is a list of the 103 games no longer available at Big Fish Games as of March 29, 2019:
Beyond the Unknown: A Matter of Time
Beyond the Unknown: A Matter of Time Collector’s Edition
Bob the Builder – Can Do Zoo
Bob the Builder: Can Do Carnival
Christmas Eve: Midnight’s Call
Christmas Eve: Midnight’s Call Collector’s Edition
Dark Dimensions: City of Ash
Dark Dimensions: City of Ash Collector’s Edition
Dark Dimensions: Somber Song
Dark Dimensions: Somber Song Collector’s Edition
Dark Parables: Requiem for the Forgotten Shadow
Dark Parables: Requiem for the Forgotten Shadow Collector’s Edition
Dark Tales: Edgar Allan Poe’s The Mystery of Marie Roget
Dark Tales: Edgar Allan Poe’s The Mystery of Marie Roget Collector’s Edition
Diego Dinosaur Rescue
Diego’s Dinosaur Adventure
Diego’s Safari Adventure
Dora Saves the Crystal Kingdom
Dora Saves the Snow Princess
Dora the Explorer: Swiper’s Big Adventure!
Doras Carnival 2: At the Boardwalk
Doras Carnival Adventure
Dreampath: Curse of the Swamps
Dreampath: Curse of the Swamps Collector’s Edition
Dreampath: The Two Kingdoms
Dreampath: The Two Kingdoms Collector’s Edition
Etch-a-Sketch: Knobby’s Quest
Go Diego Go Ultimate Rescue League
Grim Facade: The Red Cat
Grim Facade: The Red Cat Collector’s Edition
Grim Tales: Threads of Destiny
Grim Tales: Threads of Destiny Collector’s Edition
Haunted Legends: The Dark Wishes
Haunted Legends: The Dark Wishes Collector’s Edition
Haunted Legends: The Iron Mask
Haunted Legends: The Iron Mask Collector’s Edition
Haunted Legends: The Secret of Life
Haunted Legends: The Secret of Life Collector’s Edition
Haunted Legends: The Stone Guest
Haunted Legends: The Stone Guest Collector’s Edition
Haunted Manor: Painted Beauties
Haunted Manor: Painted Beauties Collector’s Edition
I SPY: Treasure Hunt
I SPY™ Fun House
iCarly: iDream in Toons
La Casa De Dora
Myths of the World: Bound by the Stone
Myths of the World: Bound by the Stone Collector’s Edition
Nick Jr. Bingo
Nicktoons: Hoverzone
Off the Record: The Final Interview
Off the Record: The Final Interview Collector’s Edition
Ominous Objects: Family Portrait
Ominous Objects: Family Portrait Collector’s Edition
Ominous Objects: Phantom Reflection
Ominous Objects: Phantom Reflection Collector’s Edition
Pajama Sam 3: You Are What You Eat From Your Head to Your Feet
Phantasmat: Reign of Shadows
Phantasmat: Reign of Shadows Collector’s Edition
Phantasmat: Town of Lost Hope
Phantasmat: Town of Lost Hope Collector’s Edition
PuppetShow: Lightning Strikes
PuppetShow: Lightning Strikes Collector’s Edition
PuppetShow: The Face of Humanity
PuppetShow: The Face of Humanity Collector’s Edition
PuppetShow: The Price of Immortality
PuppetShow: The Price of Immortality Collector’s Edition
Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo
Reality Show: Fatal Shot
Reality Show: Fatal Shot Collector’s Edition
Redemption Cemetery: Clock of Fate
Redemption Cemetery: Clock of Fate Collector’s Edition
Redemption Cemetery: The Island of the Lost
Redemption Cemetery: The Island of the Lost Collector’s Edition
Reveries: Soul Collector
Reveries: Soul Collector Collector’s Edition
Sable Maze: Forbidden Garden
Sable Maze: Forbidden Garden Collector’s Edition
Sable Maze: Norwich Caves
Sable Maze: Norwich Caves Collector’s Edition
Secret Trails: Frozen Heart
Secret Trails: Frozen Heart Collector’s Edition
Shadow Wolf Mysteries: Tracks of Terror
Shadow Wolf Mysteries: Tracks of Terror Collector’s Edition
Shrouded Tales: The Spellbound Land
Shrouded Tales: The Spellbound Land Collector’s Edition
SpongeBob Atlantis SquareOff
Spongebob Diner Dash 2
SpongeBob SquarePants Bubble Rush!
SpongeBob SquarePants Diner Dash
SpongeBob SquarePants Krabby Quest
SpongeBob SquarePants Obstacle Odyssey 2
SpongeBob SquarePants Typing
Subliminal Realms: The Masterpiece
Subliminal Realms: The Masterpiece Collector’s Edition
Unfinished Tales: Illicit Love
Unfinished Tales: Illicit Love Collector’s Edition
Wild Thornberrys Australian Wildlife Rescue
Witch Hunters: Full Moon Ceremony
Witch Hunters: Full Moon Ceremony Collector’s Edition
Wonder Pets Save the Puppy
Yuletide Legends: The Brothers Claus
Yuletide Legends: The Brothers Claus Collector’s Edition
What do you think of these game removals? Why do you think there were so many this month? Share your thoughts in a comment below.
Penelpe Housos says
I have over 1400 games with Big Fish which nears a $6000 investment in gaming. I have a problem with d/l from the purchase history both from my GM and from the purchase history on the BF site. I’ve worked around the 3 year old problem by d/l the trial or demo version and then click on buy, BF tells me I already own the game and I click on “activate”. If they delete the games this little method no longer works and I’m out a game that BF said was mine forever. BF has not addressed this problem in the 3 years that I’ve spent trying to explain it to them and I am not alone there are others out there that have been customers of BF since its inception and too have vast libraries of games. I am concerned that when I get a new computer these games are just gone never to be played again, most especially the Dark Parables and the Dreampath games which are favorites.
CasualWish says
This is so frustrating to me, because one of the big advantages of Big Fish Games over their competitors is that you can still play games you own even if they are removed from the BFG catalog. And most people still can, it’s just that those of us with libraries of many hundreds of owned games are running into this. It feels like a punishment for being such a big fan. 🙁
Anyway, you’re definitely not alone! Apart from installing the games you love to an external hard drive before they are removed from the catalog, I don’t have a good solution/suggestion for this yet. I’m keeping my eyes and ears open though and will definitely make a post when/if I hear anything that might work.
Elis says
I have the same problem.
Lots of games, last half of year I cannot access purchase history in game manager. It stil works on the website. But the exe files simply will not start downloading, when the games are not there. BFG support tried to help me – advised to use demo version and then buy/activate. It works only for games in catalogue. Well, it feels like they looked at the account when sorting what to delete (to maximize damage) and they were quite succesful. Some of the games I purchased only months before deleting (and did not even play it). But there is probably no good way out, in conditions they have words “as is available”. And when it is not available…hard to say what next.
Penelope Housos says
If you could give me a step by step instruction for d/l to external drive a copy of the games I want to keep FOREVER I would sincerely appreciate it. I may be a word processing demon but am seriously tech challenged. That’s what happens when you have a IT Dept. a phone call away. Consequently I have a 1 tig external drive and haven’t a clue how to use it. Hubby bought me a race horse for a computer and I only know how to ride a donkey.
CasualWish says
😉 Sure, I can write up some instructions but I’d honestly like to test it out on a few different computers and do a little more research first just so I make sure I’ve got it right. I might need a little time, in my “other life” it’s crunch time. I think it should be just as simple as installing the game manager on the external drive and then making sure the games are installed there too, but there could be some settings that might prevent future compatibility issues if you switch to a different computer or version of operating system.
Penelope says
Thank you for spending your time on this. There is absolutely no rush. If we can get this accomplished I will share the message around to other gamers that I know that are concerned; not necessarily with the deleted games, but transferring everything on the GM to a new computer so they are not lost forever. Again, thank you for your time.
CasualWish says
One of Big Fish’s help pages has instructions on how to install games on an external drive:
https://bigfishgames.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/229969207-Install-Games-in-New-Location
This will help for part of the problem as you can download the free trial of any games that are still in the catalog right now, and then go to ‘buy’ it as described in Penelope’s first comment above. The games manager will recognize you already own it and then you can install the game(s) to your external drive.
If any more games are removed in the future, you’ll still have access to them from your external drive, which if you buy a big enough one can hold lots of games. I have this Seagate 4TB drive (disclosure: casualwish may receive compensation for purchases made through this link, at no additional cost to you):
https://amzn.to/2Sc4ILE
A drive that big would hold something ridiculous like 8,000 games if each game was an average of 500mb. They’re usually less: most of the biggest games, the full-featured HOPAs, are around 300-450mb.
I was partly wrong about the external hard drive in my earlier comment though. I’d never tried to play my games on another computer so I didn’t realize full, purchased games wouldn’t work if you take the drive to another computer (which makes sense in hindsight, sorry).
Penelope Housos says
Thank you so much for researching all this for us, for me it is mind boggling trying to determine what will work and what will not . We just don’t want to lose our games, even the old ones if the computer still talks to them. I gave up and purchased a new computer specifically for gaming with 512 SSD storage on the C: and 2 T on the D: drives so hopefully this problem about adequate storage won’t arise in the future. Unfortunately there are others out there that are not so fortunate, they play their games and delete them from the GM due to storage problems. Sooner or later they want to play the game again, it’s no longer in the BF catalogue and no trial version so those of us that are using that work around is no longer available. I can understand BF deleting games from the catalogue due to contractual reasons or the game simply no longer being viable with current technology but then again there are gamers out there playing on XP and it’s still working.
Again we would all like to thank you for all the fine work you have done on this.
CasualWish says
It’s my pleasure. I think your new computer will do just fine for a VERY long time and yes, you’ll have adequate storage for a long time with that 2TB drive.
Christine says
Yes, Penny is correct about others not being able to simply d/l their games from their purchase history. It suddenly occurred to me a few weeks ago & I’ve been doing the work-around that Penny told me about. I haven’t contacted CS yet as I’ve read Penny’s posts about this on Facebook’s Big Fish Fans page. My problem is the same as Penny’s – there are games which BFG do not offer any more but I still own them & used to be able to download it from my purchase page. *sigh*
Barbara says
I am the same as Penny also. Can only download via the trial. We have paid for these games and they say we own them. But it looks like that is not true. Never used to be like that, you could downloan straight from the purchase history. Not any more for me. so that means the game is lost.
amy hoyle says
I have the same problem, can’t down load from my purchase history only from the game page as long as it has a demo & is still available. I have a long list of games that I have paid for that is no longer available to me. CS does nothing but send me game codes & neglects the problem.
MelissaD says
I have to say the taking of ONE game in the middle of a list makes no sense and ruins my plans. I’ve been on a fixed income and I was just getting to the point where I could get the last one and it was removed with no warning. It isn’t just this particular list either, a number of lists I’ve been slowly working on and suddenly one of them is taken away. If this is a licensing issue, please get the license BACK. If it’s some other issue, please fix it. Cause I’m missing a part of the story line!
AlphaBigFish says
To all those who have purchased games from Big Fish Games:
Invest in a good External Hard Drive (such as Western Digital) and Cloud Backup / Storage.
Dropbox has 2 GB Free Cloud Storage and Degoo has 100 GB Free Cloud Storage. (Degoo has more space but Dropbox is a much better and more reliable Cloud Storage Service). You may even want to consider using a Cloud Backup Service, such as Backblaze, which provides Unlimited Data Backup for only $6.00 a month. The point is to Backup ALL of your Game Downloads (EXE Files), your Actual Game Files and your Save Game Data somewhere else other than your hard drive. If your hard drive fails than you will have lost everything!
First, download all of your games executable files to a folder on your external hard drive. You can call it “Big Fish Games”, “BFG”, or whatever you like. KEEP a copy of the EXE Files and do not ever delete them. If / when you need to install / reinstall a game simply copy the EXE File, paste it to your desktop (or drag and drop) and then install / reinstall your game from that EXE File. You can also install / reinstall your game using the Big Fish Games App (Game Manager), but if the game has been deleted from Big Fish Games Catalog then you will have no way to Activate the game. Whereas, if you download the EXE Files from your Purchase History (and have saved them on a External Hard Drive) then when you install / reinstall the game it should be automatically activated.
However, do not take anything for granted! That is why you should also save copies of every game that you own, as well as the executable files. So even if the EXE Files fail to install you will still have the game that you purchased and will be able to play it.
I have learned the hard way that when it comes to computers and software Murphy’s Law applies! “…And if anything can go wrong, it will, at the worst possible moment.” It is never a good idea to assume you will still have your game and be able to play it later on. If you really care about your games, then back them up!
The three most important rule for computers is: Backup, Backup, Backup!
1) Save ALL of your game EXE Files (download them from your Purchase History on Big Fish Games website.)
2) Save ALL of your games. Copy and paste them from your Big Fish Games installation folder on your hard drive. (Usually in the Program Files (x86) folder in C Drive).
3) Backup ALL of your Big Fish Games files and your Game Save Files stored on your computer. You will find them on your hard drive (usually “C” Drive). Backup the BigFishCache and BigFishGamesCache folders (C Drive), the bfgclient folder (Program Files folder in C Drive) , the Big Fish and Big Fish Games folders (ProgramData folder in C Drive).
4) Backup ALL of your Game Save Data Files. The locations on Windows is: C:\users\USERNAME folder (your user name), My Documents folder, GAME folder, My Games folder, Saved Games folder, and the AppData folder (Local, LocalLow and Roaming).
The Default leter of your hard drive and locations of your game files may be different on a Mac or Linux computer, Xbox or PlayStation.
In addition to saving all of your game EXE Files, your actual games folders and your Game Save Data Files on an external hard drive, you should ALSO save / backup all of them to the Cloud.
Bear in mind that different games store their save files in different locations. There are no standard locations that are universally respected.
Once you know where all your files are that you want to backup, just copy those folders to your backup drive for safe keeping. You should do this on a regular basis (i.e. Minimum once a week, preferably every 24 hours). You’ll always have them handy – and you can restore them to their original location on a new drive to pick up where you left off.
In conclusion, Backup copies allow data to be restored from an earlier point in time to help your games recover from an unplanned event. Storing a copy of your game data on a separate medium is critical to protect against primary data loss or corruption as well as when games are removed from the Big Fish Games Catalog! And backing up your game data to the Cloud safeguards against hard drive failure.